Autumn's Aurora
by Troid
Summary: Amid the swirling leaves of the heart of autumn, White finds herself before a Ferris wheel, talking to a smiling girl in an orange dress. Femslashy oneshot of White/Hilda/Touko and Aurora, the waitress who's the FemC's Ferris wheel date in autumn.


It is a shame, shame, _shame_ that no one has written any femslash involving White/Hilda/Touko. Come on , not even one White/Bianca? _All_ of it is with N(othing)? Well, I've decided to do something about this miserable situation, and I certainly hope more of you will follow suit.

Waitress Aurora is the autumn Ferris wheel date for White. I absolutely love this character and their scenes together are loaded with slashy goodness. I wanted to honor this incredible pairing since I doubt anyone else ever will, so enjoy! I promise this picks up a little bit from its slow-ish start.

Drop of a review if you're at all able!

Also, though I'm not into all whole "shipping" scene/names, I hereby proclaim that this pairing shall henceforth be known as GirlTalkShipping!

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><p>"You need two people…"<p>

White turned. "Sorry?"

The girl who had spoken pointed upwards. "The Ferris wheel. You need two people to ride."

"Okay," said White, not really sure what else to say. "Thanks."

"Do you want to ride with me?" blurted the young waitress. Then, flustered: "I mean, if you can beat me in a Pokémon battle, the I'll ride with you. Oh! My name's Aurora, by the way."

White smiled. She hadn't actually decided whether she wanted to ride the Ferris wheel, but then, why not? She nodded to the other girl, and drew a Poké Ball from her bag. "Let's do it."

"Yeah?" Aurora seemed pumped her fist, looking embarrassed immediately afterward but maintaining her energy. "All right! Let's go, Swadloon!" From the Poké Ball she tossed came what at first appeared to be nothing but a large green leaf curled around itself, but at a second glance was recognizable as a mid-sized yellow Pokémon with a rather grumpy expression that held the leaf-covering over herself.

White threw her own Ball, calling, "Go! Serperior!" A large, green, snake-like figure sprang forth, wrapped himself in a green coat. The Serperior hissed, rising to his impressive full height, the loose, leafy 'collar' of his outer layer of skin flaring.

The waitress was momentarily distracted, but made the effort to keep her composure. "W-wow! I mean, Swadloon, use Bug Bite!"

With the distinct air of someone doing something they hate for someone they like, the Swadloon shuffled forward (surprisingly quickly) and took a chomp at Serperior's lower half. The Regal Pokémon winced, a sharp tightening of it coils, at the super-effective assault and backed away, but did not appear particularly hurt. Indeed, when White called on it to use a Slam attack, Serperior rammed Swadloon with force enough to render her unconscious immediately. The battle was over.

"Oh, oh, oh!" the girl fretted as she dashed to her Pokémon's side. "I'm sorry, Swadloon." She looked up at White while rummaging around in her own bag, which lay on the ground. "You're really good at this. I'm just…you know…not. Anyway, at least we still have time to ride the Ferris wheel, right?" She extricated a Hyper Potion from the bag with a _pop_ and applied the spray to Swadloon's body.

"Plenty," agreed White, trying to keep a straight face. "We could probably ride twice, if you want."

"Ooh, I dunno. I don't know if I could do it twice in a row. Keep the magic of the first one, right? This is a pretty long ride, anyway. Is this your first time?"

"I'm from Nuverma Town. I'd never even seen a Ferris wheel before coming here."

"Well, part of going out into the world is discovering new things, right? And sometimes when you experiment you find ones that you really like!"

"Let's ride, then!"

"Yeah, come on!"

Together they stepped into the waiting basket, the clear-domed upper half of which afforded a beautiful view of the plains, the grassy roads, the faint Castelia City skyline, and the gleaming sea. They had completed almost an entire revolution, White thoroughly enjoying herself, when the waitress spoke up. "Since we have time, shall we talk?" White nodded, and Aurora sat, facing her expectantly with her elbows on her knees and hands on her cheeks. "So, tell me how you got here."

The lazy drifting of the wheel, the gentle, almost rocking chair-like swaying of the carriage, the setting sun and close warmth of the air, and the machinery's pleasant hum hushed everything, and White found herself murmuring without meaning to. She told Aurora about Nuvema Town, about Bianca and Cheren, about getting their first Pokémon, and about her Gym challenges (she mentioned Team Plasma only once, and briefly at that). Aurora listened impeccably, her entire role in the conversation little more than "Um-hm… That's right… Whoa! Then… Um-hmm… Yes… Ah… Um-hm…" When White arrived at last at her reason for returning to Nimbasa City—in fact to visit the amusement park itself—she finished with "And that's how I came here," and then sighed. "So? What about you. Isn't it 'your turn?'"

Again the cozy atmosphere was playing tricks on her, and White was lulled into a pleasant half-stupor as Aurora spoke, attuned only to the sound of the other woman's voice, the slight pulses from underneath, and the hot air ghosting over her neck. Aurora was a waitress working in Striaton City. She liked drawing, mochas, and ice cream (especially vanilla and strawberry). She was scared of roller coasters. She loved autumn. Her favorite color was white. All of this White knew, but…was Aurora really saying it? "Said… I like you… Such a lie! It turned out there was… Over too quickly, and… Uh-huh…" By the end of ride, White thought she must have fallen asleep, because when the wheel stopped they were both seated on the same bench, Aurora nestled against her and asleep herself, a healthy glow from the dwindling sunlight flushing her face, and White felt half dreamy and half-asleep and all warm. And then they exited together, standing again where they had during their foretaste battle. The sun, still uncloseted by the tops of the distant pine trees, traced delicate circles on the surface of the pools of water around them, and the water lilies that floated there seemed to quiver with delight.

And then it was like snapping out of a reverie. "Wow, time really flew by!" enthused Aurora. "But that was really fun! I think it's great to just, you know, girl talk. I'm really glad we got to have that chat. I take breaks from work during autumn, so, um… I'll be here tomorrow. You—you can drop by and say hi, if you want, okay?"

And then White left. But the strange, dreamy sensation would not leave the back of her mind, and she still felt as if some unnamable autumnal _something_ had happened on that Ferris wheel.

So she went back the next day.

X – x – X

"Hey!" exclaimed Aurora as White approached. "We met the other day! I mean yesterday. I mean—I'm glad to see you! How're you doing?"

"Fine," said White with a smile. "How about you?"

"Oh, great! I'm just really glad you're here. If you're not busy, let's hang out again." Then, before White could respond, she flushed and said, "I mean, if you gotta motor… We'll have another chance to catch up sometime. Okay. Right. Sorry."

"I didn't say no," laughed White. "I'd love to hang out with you."

"A-awesome!" The waitress's face brightened. "For whatever reason, being with you energized me like whoa! We totally have to do it again. Ooh, let's have a Pokémon battle first!"

White couldn't help but grin even more widely. The girl's rapid-fire chatter and openness were as honest as from anyone White had ever met, and the bubbliness was infectious. She again drew Serperior's Poké Ball from her bag and released the Pokémon, as Aurora sent out her Swadloon. This battle followed a pattern similar to the previous one, though this time Swadloon at her Trainer's command pulled off a well-timed Protect that spared her Serperior's Wring Out long enough to land a String Shot followed by not one but two Bug Bites. In the end, however, Serperior again emerged victorious.

"Ouch…" said Aurora, as she returned Swadloon to her Poké Ball. "I'm so uncool…" She began to search her pockets for another p1000 to hand over to White, but the other Trainer stopped her. "It's okay; we were just battling for fun."

"Sigh…" The waitress plopped down and sat cross-legged on the soft grass, one hand supporting her head, smooshing her cheek in the process. "I lost…again! You've got such a knack for handling Pokémon. I'm just not in your league." She straightened her posture, letting her arm fall, and gazed up at White. "And you're smart and pretty and nice… I gotta say, I'm totally jealous of you." Abruptly the young woman rose, grabbed White's hand, and began pulling her towards the Ferris wheel carriage, as though she had been the one waiting for White. "Come, at least we can ride the Ferris wheel together."

After a calm half-minute or so filled only by the sound of the wheel's benign creaking, Aurora spoke up softly, saying again, "Shall we talk?" And then the next moment ghosted past White without her noticing, and she found herself sitting not across from but next to Aurora, telling her quietly about her childhood, about how Bianca would get lost and just sit where she was and cry softly until White came and found he, about how Cheren was always terrible at most sports but for some reason was an unbeatable keeper in soccer, about the first time she had gone to Accumula Town with her mother and she had thought it must be biggest city in the world, about how she had looked out the window while her mother talked to a lady she didn't know on the highest floor of an apartment building and had been terrified. Aurora again proved herself to be as excellent a listener as she was a talker, providing the appropriate responses—"Uh-huh… Exactly… Um-hm… Yes, yes… Um-hmm… Just like that… Yeah..."—but when White told her that, she sat bolt upright and the drowsiness vanished and the spell was broken. "You're afraid of heights? Oh my gosh, oh no, no, no, I'm so sorry. I've been dragging you up here and—oh, darn it!" She stood and stepped once back and across the floor of the carriage; a short, stressed movement. "I'm so, so sorry. We can get off as soon as we're down." She didn't look at White, standing with her arms stiffly by her sides; she was visibly upset.

"Wait, wait." White stood as well, placing a hand on Aurora's shoulder. "It's okay. I'm over it; that's why I wanted to come back here—to have a good time even with heights. I _wanted_ to ride this Ferris wheel." She looked the other girl in the eye. "All right, Aurora? It's okay."

Aurora bit her lip. "Sorry."

"Don't," said White, giving her shoulder a squeeze. "You don't have anything to apologize for."

"I'm sorry I was freaking out." Aurora wouldn't meet the other girl's gaze. "I get like that, you know? So uncool."

"Hey, you aren't uncool," said White, frowning. "Not to me."

"…Yeah?" White nodded, and Aurora finally looked up and into her eyes. She parted her lips, but before she could make a sound. . . .

. . . .and time played another trick on the lilting Ferris wheel, and again White and Aurora sat together on the bench, and now it was Aurora who spoke. She told White about her hometown, Accumula, and about the magnificent hues that embraced the trees there in the autumn—orange, gold, yellow, brown—and how the air felt like a breath of crystal-clear water, and the brisk winds that caressed the leaves and sent them whirling around in a beautiful dance; twined spirals of the papery sheafs rising into the air, ringing the bells of autumn and forming a stairway to the sky. She loved winter too, she said, but she did not like the cold. One autumn, she said, a woman had come to visit her mother from another town, and she had wanted to talk to the woman's daughter but had been too shy. Her voice seemed to soften all the while as she spoke, gradually diminishing to little more than fallen leaves' rustling; her words tumbled over one another and rubbed together and spread apart, remaining connected always by a glistening thread that undulated with each movement, and those word-leaves spiraled around and formed a stairway to White's heart. But she couldn't be sure that what she was hearing were the words Aurora was really speaking to her. "To help out… Yeah… But actually, they… Totally surprising!... Um-hmm…" And, try as she might, White could not help herself from drifting into the waiting arms of sleep. Or could she?

For they left the gondola, and though the dream-feel lasted for another moment—a moment where, as if in response to the last rays of the setting of the setting autumn sun, the bell-shaped flowers that grew in lush grass around them seemed to nod benignly and smile—White felt wide awake and so, it seemed, did Aurora. "That was so much fun! And I'm still sorry for going all…you know…like that." The waitress shuffled her feet, hands clasped behind her back. "I probably shouldn't say this, but I don't have a lot of friends. Finding someone like you who I can do stuff with, you know, talk and stuff, is really important to me. So…" As she spoke, her hand appeared to move of its own accord to grasp White's. "Thanks for being someone I can talk to I really, really appreciate it…you." The sun dipped another wink, now almost entirely blanketed by the treeline. "Please come back and say hi tomorrow, too…okay?"

And White left, ensnared still in the lure of sublime autumn thrall, and she returned the next day.

X – x – X

"Oh!" blurted Aurora as stopped the Nuvema Trainer, as though White might not have noticed her otherwise, even though she stood meters away. "Hi! Isn't it cold today? I'll bet it's still warm in the Ferris wheel, because heat rises and most of the cold is just the breeze. Still, I guess it's gonna be winter soon."

White, dressed as she was in her sleeveless top, didn't think it was very cold for the season, but Aurora looked as though a few more degrees lower on the thermometer would have her shivering. She was, it seemed, much more attuned to the seasonal shifts than White. Aloud White said, "Well, we should get on quick then, right?"

"We gotta have a Pokémon battle first. I always learn a lot when we battle, and seeing you in action, it just…fires me up, you know? Gets the motor running. So, what do you say?"

"Yes, of course," grinned White, Serperior's Poké Ball already at the ready. Aurora held up her own, and simultaneously they threw the devices, both shouting.

"Go, Serperior!"

"Come on out, Swadloon!"

The ensuing battle went largely as expected, with a Herculean effort by Swadloon coming to naught. When the dust cleared, only Serperior remained standing as Aurora knelt for a third time at Swadloon's side and recalled the Leaf-Wrapped Pokémon to her Poké Ball. "Oh, so uncool. I wish I was anywhere near your level, but you're way on top of me. You're so cool and totally in control—I really admire that! You've got this way of just handling things, you know? It's super—"

"Aurora," interrupted White gently. "I think you're cool. I don't think you've done anything since we met that says you aren't. Could you please stop calling yourself uncool?"

"I…okay." Aurora's voice was quiet. "I mean…yes. Yeah, I will." Then, as if she had just thought of something pleasant, a small smile alighted on her lips. "Let's ride the Ferris wheel, White." She held out her hand, palm down, and her dark blue eyes gazed into White's heart.

White took her hand without a word, for none presented themselves in the gentle autumn light, and one unbidden flutter within her chest later, they sat side by side in the gondola as it began its slow but steadily certain rise to climax and apex. But on this ride, Aurora did not murmur "Shall we talk?" as she had before. White did not share with the other girl any stories from her journey, and Aurora did not reciprocate. All that this scene had in common with the two that had preceded it was the enveloping, comforting, golden illumination of the sun, the warmth not only of the air but of the tight contact their bodies shared, together on the seat, and the drowsy, sleepy, dreamy, lullaby, lingering hush that fell softly over them like a snug blanket. White's hands were in her lap, and Aurora clutched them tightly. She felt the girl grasping her as if afraid she herself would float from the basket were she not tethered to White. The first autumnal whisper: _I see you._ White saw the rise and fall of Aurora's chest, breaths heavy with heat and passion and fear. The second autumnal whisper: _I know you._ The young Trainer smelled the salt of the waitress's tears, a sharp and melancholy sensation that made White's heart ache. And the sound? White heard everything. The muted snowfall of Aurora's hands against hers, the hot sun-ray breaths that escaped the girl's chest, the soft rainfall pitter-patter of her tears, the creaking of the Ferris wheel, the singing of the lilies, and the third autumnal whisper: _I love you._ And in a moment where, at long, breath-baited last, the leaves swirled together and united in the brilliant autumn sun and intertwined and floated gently on together, inseparable, White tasted Aurora's lips.

. . . .The leaves tumbled one over the other and rustled softly, and the folds of Aurora's orange skirt rustled too as White's head rested upon them. Slowly and with a touch soft as silk she stroked White's hair, humming a soft song from the depths of autumn memory, and, for the first time or for the fiftieth, White fell asleep.

She dreamed they got off the Ferris wheel, wide awake, and the sun smiled at them before submerging itself in the horizon. "Aww, I don't want it to be over!" said Aurora as they walked from the Ferris wheel. "When I'm with you, time just seems to zip by. Hanging out with you… Well, it's really important to me. I…I think I… um…" She winced. "Oh, listen to me. Just…don't forget about me, all right?"

White dreamed she left, and she dreamed she returned the next day.

But Aurora wasn't there.

A chill was in the air that told her she must be awake, the winds no longer brisk but cold, the heralds of winter's arrival.

_How did she know my name?_ White could not remember having told the other girl what it was.

Aurora was gone.

_The girl she said came with her mother to visit… Why didn't I say anything?_ White felt like crying.

…_Where is she?_

Striaton City. But no, because it was winter there too.

"_Since we have time, shall we talk?"_

That question had been lost to the winds, crumbled to dust and blown away like a dry autumn leaf caught in the onset of wintertime, so eager to blanket the earth not in rain, sunlight, or golden leaves, but in white snow, and with it disappeared the smart, pretty, nice, _cool_ girl who had spoken it to White on their first ride together on the Ferris wheel…

A cycle. Wheels turn, carriages sway like rocking chairs, one start low then drifts higher but ends up at the same starting point. . . .

. . . . A cycle. The swirling leaves take the last of the benevolent sun's rays (and ride the wind into the hearts of two girls), the crystalline snow envelops the leaves to create its icy quiet, the sweeping rains come to washy away the snow to make room for their flowers, the sun dries the rain and creates from it its clouds, and at last the leaves begin again to display their warm-rainbow of colors. An earth-tone aurora.

White doesn't realize it yet, but in time she will be drawn back; she must be, and the leaves will return, and with them will come another chance to rest and perhaps this time stay forever in the embrace of Autumn's Aurora.

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><p>AN: If you liked it or if you didn't, then the greatest gift you can give me is a **review** telling me what you though!

Well, that's all there is...for now. I'm writing a White/Bianca oneshot and I'm toying with writing another, longer one, but even considering those plus the four-ish other fics I'm juggling, I somehow doubt I'll be able to stay away from Aurora for long.

So, anyone notice all the double-entendres? /wink


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